


for your truth it's all the same

by onekisstotakewithme



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Bisexual Steve Harrington, Canon Compliant, Character Development, Character Study, Introspection, M/M, Queer Themes, cw: queer used as slur
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-30
Updated: 2019-06-30
Packaged: 2020-05-31 08:04:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19421875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onekisstotakewithme/pseuds/onekisstotakewithme
Summary: It's just a word that he can set down and walk away from.If he wants.





	for your truth it's all the same

**Author's Note:**

  * For [daylight_angel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/daylight_angel/gifts).



_ “Queer!” _

At first it rolls off the tongue, punctuated with a shove each time, and every time he yells the word "queer" at Jonathan Byers, the creep’s shoulders slump a little more.

It’s just a word, just another insult, another curse to shout from passing cars and during schoolyard brawls and in angry whispers during study hall. 

And it doesn’t matter if it’s true or not.

But time passes, and it stops feeling so sweet, and starts tasting sour in his mouth. 

Even more time passes, and the word, once so venomous, disappears from his arsenal, replaced with a nail bat he uses to kick the shit out of people who threaten his friends (and queer or not, Jonathan is one of them).

But it’s still just a word, an angry insult, it doesn't affect him.

Until the day he's walking with Jonathan, and Tommy shoves  _ him  _ into a locker, spitting the word at him, sharp and painful, digging into a chink in the armour of a once-revered leader.

(Jonathan takes him aside after that, hands him an ice pack for his head, and tells him all about a father that used "queer" as a weapon, his very own nail bat whose wounds still bleed on occasion, and Steve bleeds too, though he doesn't know if it's from guilt or understanding.)

(Jonathan also tells him it's fine to be that way, and Steve pretends not to hear him.)

Until the day he stands in front of the mirror and whispers the word to his reflection. "Queer."

It doesn't sting so much when he says it, but it's not a description, it's not an adjective. It's just a word that he can set down and walk away from.

If he wants.

"Queer," he mutters again, and his lips twitch into a grin. 

He's not the kind of guy for deep introspective thought (so he tells himself), but he's in deep shit if this is where his mind goes, if his first reaction is to  _ grin _ .

He tries not to think about it, tries to focus on normal things like fighting monsters and passing chemistry, and kissing pretty girls behind the bleachers of the high school, but it doesn’t change the fact that sometimes he wonders what it would be like to take a boy behind the bleachers instead.

(And when he sees Jonathan and Nancy together, he doesn’t know which of them he’s more jealous of.)

And then the day arrives, in the middle of developing some of Jonathan’s photos.

They’re messing around with Jonathan’s camera, Steve doing the most ridiculous poses just to hear Jonathan’s laugh, echoing in the quiet dark room, until he leans in, and with the same tentative enthusiasm that he'd had the first time he’d kissed Nancy, Steve kisses Jonathan.

And Jonathan kisses him back, with an earnestness and intensity that would have embarrassed Steve if he hadn’t kissed him first.

And instead of a curse, shouted and bitter,  _ queer  _ is quiet and sweet, and good.

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from the Queen song "Hammer to Fall"


End file.
